1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to concurrent communication between multiple devices on a network.
2. Description of Related Art
A wide variety of techniques are known for manipulating each of the individual technologies that exist in a Web-based concurrent system environment. For example, some techniques focus on the Web Client user interface. Other techniques focus on the simple network management protocol (SNMP) data that networked copiers, printers, facsimile machines and multifunction devices use to share their status and other data. Still other techniques focus on various methods of communicating over the Internet or between programs, and on data analysis and processing for metrics.
In a concurrent networked device environment, where the data, state and actions being performed by many devices changes almost constantly and often simultaneously, an orderly set of rules, policies and mechanisms need to be in place to interpret data and ensure that status information is reported efficiently. Copiers may run out of one or more supplies, billing data may need to be reported, operational alerts may need to issued regarding needed device repairs, network device supplies may need ordering when they become low and an order automatically created, the status of a device may need to be refreshed, accurate statistical information may need to be generated, and/or appropriate metrics may need to be applied to help evaluate the data being used by many users and systems.
At the same time, the application technology, even though it may be Web-based, may need to span a variety of technologies where there is little uniformity in rules or mechanisms. For example, the technology and practice of using a database differs considerably from that of Web-page generation, real-time simple network management protocol data gathering, or the rules and practices of state machines. Therefore, the expertise needed to construct an application integrating such various technologies could be excessively demanding.
This invention provides systems and methods that overcome much of the complexity associated with the many technologies, disciplines and/or operational considerations in a Web-based concurrent system environment.
This invention separately provides systems and methods that tie together the various disparate technologies in a simpler and more coherent manner than can be realized by the individual technologies alone.
This invention separately provides systems and methods that utilize Web objects in a Web-based concurrent system environment.
This invention separately provides systems and methods that automatically create one or more Web objects using state machines and event mechanisms. In various exemplary embodiments, the Web object state transitions are generated and transitioned in real-time. In various exemplary embodiments, the Web object state transitions and the actions that are within those state machines are executed independently of user interaction.
This invention separately provides systems and methods that improve the integrity of persistent Web objects to enable improved online and/or offline updating of data pertaining to networked devices.
This invention separately provides systems and methods that allow many implementations in which one or more front-end Web servers or related systems manipulate a common persistent Web object while maintaining consistency and integrity of data in the common persistent Web object.
This invention separately provides systems and methods that use Web objects having template-driven mechanisms that simplify creation, dynamic modification and/or persistence of individual Web objects.
This invention separately provides systems and methods that use Web objects having event-driven mechanisms that enable concurrency, contention and atomicity rules to be applied between individual Web objects.
This invention separately provides systems and methods including Web-objects that use objects, state-machines, events and actions within states.
In various exemplary embodiments according to this invention, web-based concurrent systems and methods automate data collection, monitoring, analysis and/or metric creation independently of assembling and displaying status and data about enterprise networked copiers, printers, facsimile machines, multifunction devices and or any other known or later developed network-connectable device. Web pages displaying such status and data are assembled efficiently using Web objects.
In various exemplary embodiments, the systems and methods according to this invention gather and set internal and/or external status and device data from a multiplicity of networked devices, either asynchronously and/or synchronously, using a variety of technologies including simple network management protocol, extended markup language or web servers within, embedded into, or associated with, the devices. The device data may be stored in a network database.
In various exemplary embodiments, at the same time that the networked device data is gathered from the networked devices, the systems and methods according to this invention generate graphical, textual, statistical metric and/or status information using the networked device data from the underlying network database.
In various exemplary embodiments, at the same time this information is generated, the generated information is assembled and presented to a multiple users and/or assembled in a Web browser for on demand display.
Various exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods according to this invention are based on recognition of problems in a real-time concurrent web-application, e.g., spanning numerous technologies, and resolving concurrency and contention issues between multiple users, and resolving concurrency of changing data, so that the data integrity is improved or preserved.
In various exemplary embodiments, the systems and methods according to this invention use Web objects that include explicit relationships between each of the Web objects so that communication between the Web objects is accomplished using events and a fixed set of rules associated with the Web objects. These relationships and rule enforcement allow the systems and methods according to this invention to be created in a regular manner without needing to have to deal with lower level and more complex details, such as database locking. These built-in rules simplify the creation of applications.
In various exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods according to this invention, each of the template Web objects can be separately created, for example, manually or with a web page authoring tool. The Web objects are combined and populated dynamically from the appropriate Web-object states for display as a Web page by the Web browser. In various exemplary embodiments, the presentation of a Web object is separated from its content by placing layout and appearance instructions in templates.
In various exemplary embodiments according to this invention, a framework is provided for developing Web applications. This framework is distinct from the Web applications themselves, which are created within and executed by the framework. The framework according to this invention should be contrasted with ad-hoc, informal methods for creating Web applications that have no formal framework or rules to constrain the behavior of the Web applications. Various exemplary embodiments according to the framework of this invention provide concurrent Web-based networked-device metric display, analysis and management.
By providing a formal approach, various exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods according to this invention enhance Web application behavior in important respects, for example, concurrent request management. A Web application resulting form the formal approach according to various exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods of this invention is easier to understand and maintain. Further, in various exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods of this invention redesigning of Web applications is simplified and Web application behavior is more predictable.
These and other features and advantages of this invention are described in, or are apparent from, the following detailed description of various exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods according to this invention.